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Agence France-Presse

A writer who thought she had found a painting by Pablo Picasso stolen in an infamous art heist six years ago said she was the victim of a “publicity stunt”.
Picasso’s Tete d’Arlequin (Harlequin’s Head) was one of seven celebrated paintings snatched from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam in 2012 during a daring robbery local media dubbed “the theft of the century”.
The artworks by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse and Lucian Freud have not been seen since.
But Dutch writer Mira Feticu, who wrote a novel based on the brazen heist, thought she had uncovered the piece after she was sent an anonymous letter around 10 days ago “with instructions regarding the place where the painting was hidden” in Romania.
Feticu, of Romanian origin, said the tip-off led her to a forest in the east of the country where she dug up an artwork wrapped in plastic.

Romanian authorities, who were handed the canvas on Saturday night, said that it “might be” Picasso’s painting, which is estimated to be worth €800,000 (US$915,000).
However, on Sunday night Feticu told the Dutch public broadcaster NOS that she was the victim of a “performance” by two Belgian directors in Antwerp.
Feticu said she received an email from the Belgian duo explaining that the letter was part of a project called “True Copy”, dedicated to the notorious Dutch forger Geert Jan Jansen, whose fakes flooded the art collections of Europe and beyond until he was caught in 1994.
“Part of this performance was prepared in silence in the course of the past few months, with a view to bringing back Picasso’s Tete d’Arlequin,” Bart Baele and Yves Degryse wrote on their website.

Their production company “currently wishes to abstain from any comment” because it first wants to speak to Feticu, the statement said.
“We will be back with more details on this issue within the next few days.”
Four Romanians were jailed in 2014 for the heist and ordered to pay €18 million (US$20.5 million at today’s rates) to the work’s insurers.
One of the group, Olga Dogaru, told investigators she had burned the paintings in her stove in the sleepy village of Carcaliu to protect her son, Radu, when he could not sell them.
She later retracted the statement.
I didn't burn paintings, says Romanian mother in U-turn
Investigators have previously said the paintings were destroyed after the thieves failed to find a buyer.
Specialists from Romania’s museum of natural history examined ashes from a stove in Dogaru’s home and found traces of at least three oil paintings, based on lead- and zinc-based pigments in blue, yellow, red and green that are no longer used, director Ernest Oberlaender-Tarnoveanu said.
The thieves had slipped into the Dutch museum during the night of October 15-16, 2012 and got away with the works which despite their value were not protected by alarms.


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Anonymous letter leads writer to ‘stolen’ Picasso buried in forest … but turns out to be a prank

In one of the art world’s most dramatic heists, thieves in 2012 made off with seven paintings, worth millions of euros, by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others. File photo: AFP

Painter Geert Jan Jansen of the Netherlands stands in front of his "Matisse" paintings in the Ijsselhal in Zwolle, the Netherlands November 4, 2005. Jansen, who says he taught himself to paint, turned to forgery when he found it hard to make ends meet by selling his own work. He was so good that some of the artists he copied claimed his works were their own. Jansen chose ambitious targets, painting in the style of some of the 20th century's greatest artists -- Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and fellow Dutchman Karel Appel. Picture taken November 4, 2005. To match feature Arts-Dutch-Forger REUTERS/Michael Kooren

File - This photo released by the police in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012, shows the 1971 painting 'Harlequin Head' by Pablo Picasso. Romanian authorities have arrested three suspects in last year's multimillion euro (dollar) theft of paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others from a Netherlands art gallery, Dutch police said Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, but the stolen works have not been recovered. The seven pieces were swiped by thieves in October in a late night raid at the Kunsthal gallery in downtown Rotterdam. It was the biggest art theft in more than a decade in the Netherlands. The stolen works have an estimated value of tens of millions of dollars if they were sold at auction, but art experts said that would be impossible following the theft. (AP Photo / Police Rotterdam, File)

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In 2012, thieves stole seven paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others
Hopes of recovering one of them, a Picasso, dashed by apparent hoax


Dutch writer Mira Feticu, who wrote a novel based on one of the art world’s most dramatic heists, was sent an anonymous letter with instructions on how to locate one of the stolen pieces: Picasso’s ‘Tete d’Arlequin’.


Anonymous letter leads writer to ‘stolen’ Picasso buried in forest … but turns out to be a prank

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}In 2012, thieves stole seven paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others Hopes of recovering one of them, a Picasso, dashed by apparent hoax

In 2012, thieves stole seven paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others

Hopes of recovering one of them, a Picasso, dashed by apparent hoax